Alcatel-Lucent makes Neopost UK’s IT infrastructure more efficient, more secure and
less expensive to run
NEOPOST UK SYNCHRONIZES
KEY IT DIRECTORIES – AND CUTS COSTS
Case study • Telecommunications
Alcatel-Lucent Services for Enterprise’s skills and
expertise are used to set up automatic, real-time
synchronization of Neopost UK’s two key IT directories.
Case study • Telecommunications
first class mail
Neopost is a leading player in the mailroom equipment market.
The group offers the most advanced solutions for mailing systems,
folders, inserters and addressing, as well as traceability for letters
and parcels. The range of its services is broad, and includes
consulting, maintenance, financing solutions and online services.
So successful is Neopost in the provision of these products and
services that it is Europe’s biggest mailroom equipment supplier,
and number two in the global market. In 2006, it turned over
nearly a billion Euros, had seven offices in the UK alone, and
worldwide employed some 4,900 people in 14 countries.
Posting times
Every company with such a sizable workforce faces the challenge
of keeping track of its people. Every time an employee is
recruited, leaves, moves desk, transfers to a new site, or changes
responsibility, it is likely to require an update of the organization’s
two key ICT (information and communications technology)
directories: the one that governs computer systems and the one
that enables the telephony infrastructure to route calls correctly.
Inevitably, it is time consuming and expensive to implement these
moves and changes (MACs), and almost every company struggles
to keep both directories up to date and in alignment.
2 Alcatel-Lucent Neopost, UK
When the ICT team at Neopost UK decided to automate and
streamline their ICT directory management processes, they
called in Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services. According to
Keir Brancoft, a project manager with Neopost, that was a great
move. He comments: “Continuing in a manual environment
would have been very expensive and far from ideal. Although it
is difficult to give exact figures, the Alcatel-Lucent solution has
undeniably allowed us to make substantial savings as there is up
to 50 per cent less maintenance and administration required.”
aDDress listings
One of the two directories that had to be kept up to date was
Microsoft Active Directory. This is a distributed directory
service that enables centralized, secure management of an entire
network across one or more sites. It is a central component of
the Windows platform, and provides the means to manage the
“The Alcatel-Lucent solution has
undeniably allowed us to make substantial
savings as there is up to 50 per cent less
maintenance and administration required.”
Keir Brancoft, project manager, Neopost UK
Case study • Telecommunications
identities and relationships that make up network environments.
So, for example, it manages password protocols, enables users
to log on and off, and permits staff to teamwork in discrete
groups. Obviously, it has a central role in maintaining a network’s
security.
The other directory that had to be better maintained was
essential to Neopost’s telephony infrastructure. It was one
of many powerful tools that comprise the Alcatel-Lucent
OmniVista™ 4760 Network Management System (NMS), which
resided on the company’s Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX™ Enterprise
communication server. The NMS directory’s principal purpose
is to route incoming and internal calls to the correct extension,
although it has other functionalities.
Of course, these IT and telephony directories are each absolutely
critical to the smooth running of any modern organization.
However, their updating to reflect new MACs is a burdensome
and time consuming task, and – in a busy ICT department,
where time is at a premium, and priorities constantly change –
it is rarely possible to keep them as current and as accurate as is
desirable. In particular, it is all too easy for a technician to update
a MAC in one directory, and then be distracted by an emergency
so that she forgets to post the amendment, addition or deletion
in the other.
This was the problem that Neopost was facing. Not only was
the actual process of updating the two directories onerous and
expensive, but there was a risk that the old and/or inaccurate
information they contained could impact on the group’s
efficiency.
Indeed, it could possibly even compromise security. For instance,
it is obviously important that a former employee’s ability to log
onto IT systems ceases as soon as he leaves the company.
Pushing the enveloPe
Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services proposed a solution that
would virtually halve the directory maintenance workload
while helping to improve efficiency and data integrity.
Its team set about building two modules. The first was a direct
Alcatel-Lucent Neopost, UK 3
challenge
To improve the accuracy and timely availability of
critical information on two key directories
To reduce the IT department’s administrative workload
To drive down directory maintenance costs
solutions & services
Unrivaled expertise from the Alcatel-Lucent
Professional Services team
Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 4760 Network Management
System integrated with Microsoft Active Directory
Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise
communication server
benefits
Improved network security, performance and efficiency
Lower network management costs
Simpler, more trouble-free directory maintenance
Increased end user confidence in system integrity
“Without this automatic provisioning,
a manual process may have left user
profiles in one directory that should have
otherwise been disabled.”
Keir Brancoft, project manager, Neopost UK
Case study • Telecommunications
4 Alcatel-Lucent Neopost, UK
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Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise configuration module,
which integrates into the Microsoft Active Directory (MSAD)
interface. This allows phone sets to be created and managed using
MSAD entries. The second was an LDAP (Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol) synchronization module, which synchronizes
the Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 4760 network management
system directory fields (extension number, IP address, phone set
category, and so on) with those in the MSAD LDAP database.
Naturally, the Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services team had
an intimate knowledge of all the Alcatel-Lucent applications
and products with which they were working, along with
an unbeatable understanding of IP network technologies.
This expertise supported the team’s members for the integration
and synchronization tasks that they had to perform, and the
project proceeded smoothly.
Delivering real business benefits
Today, when Neopost’s ICT department has to implement
a MAC, it updates only the Microsoft directory. As soon
as that is done, the Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services
solution automatically and immediately synchronizes with the
other directory in the NMS. In this way, both directories are
permanently in alignment, and the time it takes to maintain
them is effectively halved.
This not only slashes costs, but also contributes to Neopost’s
overall efficiency and the security of its ICT infrastructure.
As Keir Brancoft observes: “Alcatel-Lucent’s solution has fulfilled
an immediate requirement for synchronizing the two directories.
Without this automatic provisioning, a manual process may have
left user profiles in one directory that should have otherwise
been disabled. By reflecting our organization’s most current
information, our employees can feel confident that they are
working with accurate and timely information at all times.”
He continues: “It would have taken twice the time to
synchronize attributes of our Microsoft Active Directory into the
Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 4760, and then into the Alcatel-Lucent
OmniPCX Enterprise server. But now it’s instantaneous
throughout the working day. Everything is kept up to date.”
Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services
proposed a solution that would virtually
halve the directory maintenance
workload while helping to improve
efficiency and data integrity.
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